


The Comfort Of A Laugh Track

by bonespell



Series: May Night Be Swift And Soon Give Way [1]
Category: Minecraft (Video Game)
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Good, Hurt/Comfort, TommyInnit Needs a Hug (Video Blogging RPF), Villain Jack Manifold, Villain Niki | Nihachu, Wilbur Soot and Technoblade and TommyInnit are Siblings, and that blaming all of her problems on her dead best friend's traumatized little brother, as she should, but not really, niki has an existential crisis, nobody blames him, probably isn't the best idea, she realises that she made mistakes too and still is, technoblade still cares and it shows, tommy is so tired, you'll see - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-03
Updated: 2021-02-03
Packaged: 2021-03-14 12:27:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29171106
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bonespell/pseuds/bonespell
Summary: “I’m serious,” He continues. “I can give you just about anything you want - I’ll make it happen.”“What are you trying to do?” She asks monotonously. She wants him to shut up.“Well, I’m clearly trying to find something out,” He rolls his eyes. “Anything you want. Shoot.”“Your life,” Niki huffs after a long moment. She is almost daring him to respond to a dare like that, and imagines how she will laugh when he stutters and says that is not one of the things he’s offering. She will make a mirthless quip about the word anything. He will not respond.The silence is long, and she thinks she’s right, but Tommy has never failed to surprise her.“You can have it,” he says quietly. “I don’t mind. Not if it’s you.”
Relationships: Jack Manifold & Niki | Nihachu, Niki | Nihachu & Technoblade, Niki | Nihachu & TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF)
Series: May Night Be Swift And Soon Give Way [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2153904
Comments: 37
Kudos: 793





	The Comfort Of A Laugh Track

**Author's Note:**

> damn kayla back at it again with the minecraft fanfiction
> 
> mhm
> 
> yeah

Tommy is feisty in the beginning. He is loud and brash and rude and the Tommy Niki has always known, the one she used to care for like he was her own-

Now, she reminds herself sternly, they are on opposite sides and Tommy must pay for what he’s done wrong. He’s ruined _everything_ , she must remind herself. Everything she had. Everything she loved. It’s- It’s his fault. It is it is it-

“It _is_ ,” She hisses vehemently under her breath to nobody in particular. She drags a hand over her eyes when she hears Tommy shift to look at her from where he’s chained to the floor.

“What is?” He asks, and it’s not even like he’s looking at captors who’ll kill him. That’s the look he used to give her when she spent a little too long open, or a few too many cakes were on the counter. That look of genuine, sweet, concern that said _What can I do to help?_

You can die, she thinks, and the thought makes her snort.

“Gonna be honest, Niki, you’re being a little…” Tommy winds his finger around his ear in a _crazy_ gesture, rattling his manacles as he does. Niki catches glimpse of the reddening skin underneath the manacles, and it brings her both some sick feeling of triumph and also a feeling of _sick._

This is what she wanted. Why does it feel so wrong?

“Stop talking,” Niki snarls, perhaps too aggressively. Tommy puts his hands up placatingly.

“You sure you don’t wanna… say what it is? May make you feel better.”

Niki can’t help her anger - she throws her glass at the stone above her head, and doesn’t miss how he flinches into himself so hard he looks miniature. He remains curled on the floor like that, breathing quickly. She’s breathing heavily in contrast - this _boy_ has always been her downfall. He needs to pay, but he’s all… 

Niki clutches the cloak that isn’t hers around her shoulders tighter, and shuts the heavy metal door to finish her watch outside of the room.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


When Niki walks back in, Tommy’s cheek is bruised red and purple, and he’s sitting and staring at the door. It’s her shift again, and she doesn’t know what Jack did in between, but she can guess that it likely wasn’t friendly, based on the marks and the yelling she’d overheard.

“You know how the first stage of grief is denial?” He asks, and the question takes her so off guard she physically pauses.

“What are you getting at?” She asks, tactically narrowing her eyes and pursing her lips.

“I think,” Tommy declares matter-of-factly, “That I’m there.”

“Huh?”

“Well,” He begins to explain, and Niki looks at him. What the hell goes through his brain at any given time? “The five stages of grieving are denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. I think I’m in the first one.”

Niki snorts, only semi-bitterly compared to earlier. “Why are you in the stages of grief?”

“Well, you’re going to kill me, right?”

She freezes - they _are,_ but she didn’t expect him to say it so outright.

“Niki, I’m not stupid. Your intentions were obvious from the start - I’ve been in denial since the nuclear testing site incident. I still am - hard to wrap my head around the idea that _you_ of all people are going to be the one to kill me.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Niki snaps. “Am I not worthy enough for you?”

“No, no,” Tommy replies, ever-so-softly. “You’re more than worthy - I just never considered the possibility of dying at your hand.”

Niki stares at him - what is he saying? Why is his voice soft like that? Why is it, when he looks so vulnerable, she first sees the blood dripping from the inside of his manacles from rubbing his wrists and ankles raw? She _hates_ this.

“You promised you’d protect me, Niki,” Tommy finishes, and Niki’s breath catches. “And some part of me believes you still will.”

She promised Wil, didn’t she? That she’d protect him if he couldn’t, that she’d make sure he ate and slept and took care of himself if anything went wrong. He insisted that they had to be there for eachother, that if something went wrong they had to stick together and have eachother’s backs.

Niki hadn’t understood what he’d meant, really, until she stood in a crowd, watching Wilbur’s last laugh turn to a last cough as he sunk into the arms of his father, the very one to put the blade through his chest.

Tommy took his jacket, and Niki took his cloak. L’manburg was okay for a while, and then the walls came and the exiles came and the discs got in the way _again_.

Tommy has hurt them all. He is the reason L’manburg is gone, he is the reason that-

No, no. Wait. Tommy…

No! No further thinking about this. Tommy is bad, end of story. 

Niki nods to herself, watching out of the corner of her eye as Tommy slumps back against the wall and runs a hand through his greasy hair.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


Niki’s next shift with Tommy does not come until two days later - She was busy talking to some people for Jack, and making some moves of her own. She doesn’t trust Jack, and she knows Jack doesn’t trust her - they are united over a common goal, and that is to see Tommy dead once and for all.

“Hey,” Tommy tries when she walks in and takes her seat. “Been a while, eh?”

“Not long enough,” She spits back in return, and watches Tommy sigh in a way that is entirely too much like Wilbur. Tommy has new bruises, and she knows where they’re from. She wonders…

No.

No empathy.

Not here. Not for him.

“You know what I realised?” He asks, seemingly uncaring if she’s listening. “I moved on, Niki. I’m at anger now.”

“You don’t seem angry.”

“Oh,” Tommy laughs, tone dripping unexpected venom (and yet, was it really that unexpected?). “I’m absolutely livid, Niki. I just… it takes too much energy to be mad like I used to. I don’t have the energy to waste.”

Niki looks at the way he moves his hair from his face and the way he breathes out slowly and the way he begins to hum and it _hurts_ to see Wilbur living inside of this _hazard_ because Niki _has_ to get rid of him, doesn’t she? She pledged. She needs to protect the ones she loves, and that means expunging the SMP of people like Tommy.

She looks at him, for just a moment, with so much sadness in her heart it nearly bowls her over. He is not looking at her, instead biting at one of his fingernails halfheartedly. She doesn’t know what she’d do if he had been looking at her in that moment.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


Tommy is chained up - of course he gets dirty. Niki expects Jack to maybe uncuff his arms and let him wash his hair or at least use a cloth to get some blood and dirt off, but Jack seems to have a more horrendous idea.

Jack shoves Tommy into the hole of water, watching as he comes up spluttering and floundering, unable to swim as well as he’d like to with his arms tied behind his back.

Jack laughs, and Niki laughs along, but she doesn’t know if she really feels it. Jack reels Tommy out, who is shaking from exertion and cold, and Niki takes pity on him. She tells Jack she will take it from here, and approaches Tommy slowly. He scoots away, rage evident in his eyes as he shivers violently in his wet clothes.

“Stay still,” She murmurs, and then adds, “Or I can’t help, dumbass,” to the end because just the first part was too sappy. Tommy warily does not move, and he physically sinks into her hand when it begins rubbing circles into his scalp.

Niki washes out his hair and helps him dry out a little before she takes him back. He is looking at her with some sort of reverence, an intense gratefulness, but she cannot look at him. She shoves him back into his cell and locks the cuffs in the case, and she can still feel the broken shards of anger from his gaze boring into her back.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


Techno meets with her - she notices he looks healthier than he has in the time she’s known him, and she’s very happy to see it. When she tells him so, he flushes in embarrassment and rubs the back of his neck, and it makes her laugh just a little.

Eventually the mood turns somber - he did not come here without reason. They talk of anarchy and destroying governments - to be fair, all of that she expects. Technoblade is not one for social visits, and from what she’s heard has not ever been - having a motive underlying is exactly the type of thing she should have been prepared for.

What she does not expect is when he hesitantly asks about Tommy.

“I’m sorry?” She replies softly, almost as if she hadn’t caught what he said instead of it causing her to short circuit. He meets her eyes from where he’s been staring past her as he talks and raises an eyebrow. She notes it’s markedly more vulnerable than his normal sarcastic eyebrow.

“Is… he alright?” Techno asks in a tone that Niki would say, if she didn’t know better, qualifies as _timid_. “Has he been doing okay?”

Niki has two options here - she can tell the truth and possibly lose a life, or she can lie. Niki has never been a liar, has never liked to lie, but has found that she has become one. She doesn’t quite know how to feel about that.

“Last I saw, he was fine,” She smiles warmly, hoping it’s convincing. She doesn’t know what she can even do if it isn’t. “He’s with Tubbo in Snowchester, I think?”

Techno gives her a small smile, soft and relieved and entirely uncharacteristic of him. She thought he despised Tommy, and vice versa - Why is he so concerned about Tommy’s well-being now?

“Thank you, Niki,” He tells her, and his voice is genuine. He holds out a hand for her to shake, and she does. “If you find my offer suits you, you know where to find me.”

Niki nods - she’s sure she can find out through Ranboo if she must. Techno releases her hand and turns on his heel, cloak billowing behind him. She watches him go, thinking still about his inquiry about someone he claims to have moved on from.

Why is she thinking about it? It doesn’t matter. _Tommy_ doesn’t matter. It’s… fine.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


Tommy spits at her as she enters the cell, and she calmly takes a step back. 

“Fuck off,” He snaps, wiping at his bleeding nose. “I don’t want your fucking pity, Niki.”

Niki stares at him - He has a purpling handprint around his neck, and his nose is crooked and undoubtably broken. She will be wholly unsurprised if Jack’s knuckles are red and irritated from hitting.

She does not feel bad, she tells herself sternly. This is deserved.

“Thought you were too tired to be angry?” She asks simply instead, fully aware of how patronizing her tone must seem. She doesn’t care.

“Yeah, well, that was before Jack Manifold, who’s apparently fucking _psychotic_ now, repeatedly nearly choked me out for his own entertainment. What the fuck is wrong with you people?”

“I could ask you the same.”

“You could-” Tommy breaks off in _laughter_ , of all things. “I have gone over what I’ve done a hundred thousand times, Niki. I’ve taken accountability and worked to fix my mistakes and done everything I can to avoid making any more. Can you say the same?”

“What have I done, Tommy? All I wanted was to live peacefully with Wil! He was my best friend, you know-”

“He was my _brother_ !” Tommy shouts, breathing raggedly. Niki stops short. “He was my _brother_ , Niki, and I was at the front of the crowd that was witness to his execution. That’s what it was, wasn’t it? My _father_ killed him! I lost my entire family standing right there on that _fucking ledge_!”

Niki cannot _stand_ Tommy. He is annoying and selfish and not worth her time. She is _infuriated_ by the way he is talking to her - does he really believe he gets an excuse because he was orphaned? Doesn’t he realise that’s common? Doesn’t he realise she was too?

“You’re _selfish_ ,” Niki spits. “You make _everything_ about you!”

“ _You_ kidnapped _me_!”

“I’m doing a service!”

“A service in what, killing a fucking child?”

“ _How the fuck are you a child_?” Niki screams finally, clenching her fists so hard they shake. “You’re a criminal, Tommy! You’ve done fucking unspeakable things! You’ve ruined so many lives - _mine_ _included_!”

“I’m _sixteen_ !” He screams back. “I’m a sixteen year old war veteran, and only just recently realised how _fucked_ that is!”

Niki’s view is red with anger. She is not a violent person, but she reels her foot back and slams it into his stomach as hard as she can. It makes her feel better, and he deserves it. Not only that, she’s seen Tommy be hurt much worse and be unaffected. This will do nothing.

She looks down, and he is sobbing.

“Please,” He begs through his sudden and unexpected tears. “Please don’t- I won’t do anything, I’m sorry for yelling, I’ll be quiet I won’t talk I _swear_ , please- it hurts, Dream, don’t hurt me, don’t-”

His eyes are faraway. She cannot listen to this. She quietly exits the room with a pit in her stomach and a hole in her heart. She can hear his sobs through the door.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


She keeps meeting with Technoblade, and he has not asked about Tommy again, but she thinks about it every time she sees him.

She watches from a distance as the bags under Tubbo’s eyes grow as he loses sleep to desperately search for his Tommy, the last thing he has left.

She hears Jack’s laughter and muttering to himself in their makeshift base, when she is around, and thinks about the handprints on Tommy’s neck and the way he’d curled up and cried at first sight of physical aggression.

If that’s the reaction Jack’s getting, she doesn’t doubt that it’s only encouraging him to hurt Tommy more. The thought makes her sick to her stomach before she forces the feeling away disappointedly. She does not feel sympathy for the traitorous brat locked in the decaying room.

She doesn’t.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


She does not visit Tommy for a long time - it must be a week. She does not see him until Jack tells her urgently that they must move him, that Tubbo is too close to finding the entire operation.

To be honest, Niki wasn’t even sure Tommy was still alive. She thought Jack would have killed him by now, but he hasn’t, and Niki wants to roll her eyes because she doesn’t know why, but she _doesn’t_ want to deal with his bullshit emotions anymore. She doesn’t _care_.

Tommy has gained a manacle around his neck, chain loose. She knows it is to keep him from running, but she can’t help but feel like it’s inhumane. Tommy looks humiliated and pissed - she supposes she can’t entirely blame him. She would be too.

  
  


Too bad she doesn’t give a damn about how he feels, she thinks, and the thought is intentional. Her instinct is begging her for things she will not do, because he deserves this. He deserves this. He deserves this.

Jack comes in, and Niki’s heart cries as she watches Tommy physically flinch away. Jack grins, simply leaning over to unlock the chains. He fastens Tommy’s arms behind his back again, and shoves him forwards.

Tommy keeps his head high - this, at least, she can admire.

Jack disappears into the trees a half hour into their walk, claiming to go for a shortcut and leaving Niki with Tommy. She doesn’t take the chain - she can’t bring herself to. If Tommy runs, she supposes, she is perfectly capable of bringing him down.

“What do you want?” Tommy asks her, and it’s more resigned than anything else. Niki wants to offer him her handkerchief, to wipe away the smeared blood running from his forehead, but she doesn’t.

She doesn’t respond, either.

“I’m serious,” He continues. “I can give you just about anything you want - I’ll make it happen.”

“What are you trying to do?” She asks monotonously. She wants him to shut up.

“Well, I’m clearly trying to find something out,” He rolls his eyes. “Anything you want. Shoot.”

“Your life,” Niki huffs after a long moment. She is almost daring him to respond to a dare like that, and imagines how she will laugh when he stutters and says that is not one of the things he’s offering. She will make a mirthless quip about the word anything. He will not respond.

The silence is long, and she thinks she’s right, but Tommy has never failed to surprise her.

“You can have it,” he says quietly. “I don’t mind. Not if it’s you.”

His tone is soft and resigned and bitter and yet full of genuine trust and genuine seriousness. Niki, in that moment, realises that if she took a blade to his throat now, he would not fight back.

This leads to the realisation that he must still trust her - must still care for her in the way she no longer does for him. (She doesn’t care, and she’ll die on this hill.) However, he trusts her enough to basically ask her to kill him.

That strikes her too - since when did Tommy stop fighting?

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


Their next base is in a cave - Tommy’s remaining manacles are secured into a stone wall. He curls away from Niki and Jack - he seems to know he will not be offered their dinner. Despite his obvious malnourishment, Niki would say in confidence that he isn’t hungry.

She sits next to him, long after Jack has gone to sleep, snoring in his sleeping bag. Tommy does not react, and she did not expect him to.

“What stage are we on now?” She murmurs to him, hoping he will respond. She doesn’t know why.

Tommy slowly turns over to her. His eyes are rimmed with red, and his throat looks rubbed raw by the new chain - his ankles, now left free, are scabbed and scarred in a perfect band. Niki wants to throw her heart across the room and watch it bounce off of the wall - she is tired of feeling things she doesn’t want to feel.

“Depression,” He responds, somehow quieter. “It’s stupid, you know - This shouldn’t affect me. Not after what everyone else did. This is nothing, Niki. I’m just being a pussy, I think.”

Niki wants to tell him it is not cowardly to feel bad - just because you have felt worse before doesn’t invalidate how you’re feeling now. She’d learned that lesson long ago and preached it for just as long.

Instead, she lets him continue.

“It’s not very big man of me to miss him, you know. In the end, he was horrible to me. Niki, all I can think about is how if he was here, how he’d come for me. He always has. I’ve never had to genuinely accept that I’m going to die before, because it was a given. Lucky me, I guess - I don’t worry about death anymore. Not after…”

He trails off, and the mention of Wilbur reminds Niki of her promise. She was supposed to protect him. In some sick, twisted way, the job she is doing is protecting him. Niki’s sure if Tommy realised he was hurting everyone else, he’d accept this fate wordlessly.

However, he doesn’t, which makes doing the right thing and keeping her promise far harder. She doesn’t know what to say to him, so against every screaming protest in her body, she gently reaches out and pulls his head to rest on her shoulder, hugging him gently to her chest.

Tommy fists one hand into Wilbur’s cloak, and tucks his nose against Niki’s neck. She runs her hand through his hair - She should not be doing this. Not for Tommy. She shouldn’t, and yet she is.

She misses Wilbur. She wonders what he would think of her now.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


Come morning, as Jack excitedly tells Tommy his plans and watches Tommy pale, Niki stares down a cave wall so hard she wouldn’t be surprised if it melted under her glare. Something is stirring in her gut, and she’ll be damned if she doesn’t figure it out.

She can see Tommy visibly accept things - his face relaxes, and he zones out. It is the final stage - Jack keeps talking, but she can see the moment Tommy truly comes to terms with his grisly fate. She cannot stand it.

In the corner of Wilbur’s cloak is a hand-stitched music note. She remembers suddenly who made this garment, the only one with that ability, and watches as the very maker loses his hope.

Niki claims she has a meeting, and leaves the cave.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


Niki leaves a note for Tubbo, but delivers her message to Techno personally.

He pulls her into a gentle greeting hug when he sees her, pressing their foreheads together in what he’d explained long ago to be a piglin greeting. She obliges, only pulling back when he does.

“Techno,” She says seriously. “I’ve messed up. I need your help.”

“What is it?” He asks, immediately concerned.

“I can’t say, but please,” She presses a piece of paper with written coordinates into his hand. “Help him. I believe I’ve made a mistake.”

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


Jack’s bonfire grows bigger, and from the cave, Niki can see the glow.

“I think it’s gonna hurt,” Tommy says, voice broken. “It’s okay. It’s not a pain I’m not used to, I guess.”

“Mm.” Niki responds simply. She doesn’t know what to say to him, but she wants to offer him comfort - wordlessly, he has ended up tucked into her chest again. He does not seem to be too concerned about his imminent end.

“It’s not too late to kill me yourself,” He continues. “Please, Niki. I’d rather it be by your hand.”

Niki can’t kill him - she’s realised. It took her a long time and some visual assistance, but she’s realised.

She has been in denial this entire time - Tommy, while far from innocent, has been used and abused and manipulated forever, and he is genuinely trying to repent. He does not deserve to burn like a guilty criminal - he is a boy. He’s never been anything but.

Niki realises she’s made mistakes.

She takes her dagger from her pack, and Tommy smiles softly, firelight dancing in his eyes and in the light metal of the blade. He shuts his eyes, exhaling and sinking into her.

Niki raises the dagger, grabs his chain, and pulls it taunt the moment the dagger comes into contact.

Niki does not break her promises, she’d claimed. It makes her laugh - She had broken the most important one she’d ever made.

Tommy jerks upright as she quickly hacks through the chains on his wrists as well, pushing him off of her. She can only hope that the others have come through. If not, she will do what she must.

“Niki?” He whispers, eyes wide with surprise and fear.

Niki does not break her promises. She does not break her promises - And she will not start now.

“I won’t watch you die today,” She says, tone serious and perhaps a little harsh. She has moved onto anger - She is furious that this was almost allowed to happen. “I will not leave here knowing I didn't do everything I could.”

Tommy doesn’t respond, so she pulls him to unsteady feet, unbuttoning Wilbur’s cloak and tucking it around him. She pulls the hood over his head gently, tucking his hair out of his eyes and leaning him towards the woods.

“Go,” She whispers. “Go, Tommy. They’re here for you - don’t stop until you find them.”

“What about you?” He whispers back, hoarse.

“You talked about taking responsibility for your actions - I think it’s nigh time I do the same.” She smiles, as gently as she can manage. She finds it to be genuine.

Tommy holds her hand to his cheek for a moment longer before he turns and sprints into the woods - unsteady, but practiced.

She has made mistakes. Everyone has. Tommy has, which is the whole reason this began. She can’t say she’s not grateful - and as a show of her gratefulness, she's decided she will follow in his footsteps. This will be the beginning - She will make up for everything she’s done, and one day Tommy will be able to look at her the way he used to. One day she can be his sister again.

“Niki,” A dangerous voice says from behind her. “I didn’t see what I think I saw, right?”

Niki turns back to Jack, who is heavily armed and looks furious. She weighs her options - She can run as well, or she can fight and die. Niki is not a fighter, she never has been - she turns tail and runs. She disappears from the light and the yelling and into the night, and she exhales. She has made it.

The pain in her gut insists otherwise - as she hits the ground, she registers the arrow that’s the cause for her bloodsoaked blouse. She has come too far to die here, she thinks. She has done too much.

She can hear Jack sing-songing her name in the forest. She drags herself forward, one arm at a time, blinking back tears and biting her lip as not to cry out from the pain. She thinks this is killing her faster, but she has no other choice.

She doesn’t get far before her energy gives out. She flips onto her back to stare at the moon, and ignores the pain it induces.

It is a full moon tonight - the stars are bright, and she can see the outline of the leaves high above her clearly. It is a pretty enough sight to die to. She looks at the stars for as long as her body allows - and suddenly she cannot open her eyes to see. She does not know when she closed them.

Laughter bubbles up in her chest - It’s almost funny, she thinks. She’d told herself she didn’t care, that she’d die on that hill - she supposes die she will. 

She doesn’t think, for the first time in a very long time, that it will be with regret.

There are footsteps, soft and careful, and then a thin arm wraps around her back and another under her knees.

**Author's Note:**

> someone please let niki come to this realisation in canon i miss their dynamic i'm crushed
> 
> feed a starving author with some comments?? pretty please?? cherries on top??
> 
> oh yeah the big doc of unpublished stuff hit 50k so woo i'm a bigger nerd than i thought lmaoooo
> 
> links (come say hi/and or yell at me for my sins!!!)
> 
> tumblr: http://bonespell.tumblr.com/ 
> 
> instagram: https://instagram.com/bonespell._?igshid=ldttylwcn5ke


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